Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Monday, October 26, 2015
Six days remain
Six days of October remain. That is six days until I begin my new novel "Photographic Visions", with the basic goal of 50,000 words in November for Nano. I've won it twice in my life, in both 2002 and 2011. I've started several other efforts but the closest I got was about 7500 words in 2012 before I realized it was difficult with a full-time job that occasionally had overtime as well.
That being said, I either make it or I don't when it comes to my Nano writing. I don't have an "almost" book where I have 45,000 words and suddenly run out of gas. Either I get to the goal of 50,000 or fail early in the effort. I've written two other books whose length would qualify them for the reward, but they were written over longer periods of time and thus do not have that Nano luster that comes from writing 50,000 words in a single month.
At first glance, the amount of writing seems cumbersome. Even if you break it down, it's 1,667 words a day. That's seven (double-spaced) pages a day, or as long as an essay you might write as a college freshman. I'm sure many of us as college students have written those seven-page (or longer) essays in a single evening or even before a class if it was later in the day and we had a significant gap, but this is writing 30 of those essays every day for a month.
Except they're not essays... it's one book. Though I suppose you could write 30 loosely-connected short stories for Nano and still win with that strategy. For me however I prefer to write longer works with nothing other than occasional viewpoint shifts to change the story. I'd like to believe I have a lot of ideas for my new story that can carry me to 50,000 words.
But so far I don't know if I have much. I have written maybe 150-200 words of "character sketches" and I don't have any chapter outlines or anything of that nature. I'm not a huge planner when it comes to my novels. I tend to just start writing with maybe a few character outlines. I don't have long flowcharts or verbose character descriptions to assist me.
I do enjoy writing, and I think this could be a good one. I think instead of being done for a while after writing my Nano, I should keep writing new books. I've had the same five books on Kindle for the past 23 months, and it's time for a change!
As always, I thank you for reading this blog. I imagine the only views will come from my Facebook and perhaps Google+ but I hope people begin reading this "author" blog of mine. Eat some burgers and be yourselves!
That being said, I either make it or I don't when it comes to my Nano writing. I don't have an "almost" book where I have 45,000 words and suddenly run out of gas. Either I get to the goal of 50,000 or fail early in the effort. I've written two other books whose length would qualify them for the reward, but they were written over longer periods of time and thus do not have that Nano luster that comes from writing 50,000 words in a single month.
At first glance, the amount of writing seems cumbersome. Even if you break it down, it's 1,667 words a day. That's seven (double-spaced) pages a day, or as long as an essay you might write as a college freshman. I'm sure many of us as college students have written those seven-page (or longer) essays in a single evening or even before a class if it was later in the day and we had a significant gap, but this is writing 30 of those essays every day for a month.
Except they're not essays... it's one book. Though I suppose you could write 30 loosely-connected short stories for Nano and still win with that strategy. For me however I prefer to write longer works with nothing other than occasional viewpoint shifts to change the story. I'd like to believe I have a lot of ideas for my new story that can carry me to 50,000 words.
But so far I don't know if I have much. I have written maybe 150-200 words of "character sketches" and I don't have any chapter outlines or anything of that nature. I'm not a huge planner when it comes to my novels. I tend to just start writing with maybe a few character outlines. I don't have long flowcharts or verbose character descriptions to assist me.
I do enjoy writing, and I think this could be a good one. I think instead of being done for a while after writing my Nano, I should keep writing new books. I've had the same five books on Kindle for the past 23 months, and it's time for a change!
As always, I thank you for reading this blog. I imagine the only views will come from my Facebook and perhaps Google+ but I hope people begin reading this "author" blog of mine. Eat some burgers and be yourselves!
Sunday, October 11, 2015
"Photographic Visions"
A few ideas for my soon-to-be novel, Photographic Visions.
Characters:
Mark: An excellent photographer who often confuses history with memory and gets himself stuck in his own delusions and sometimes shows poor judgment when it comes to things that most people understand innately.
Connie: A talented artist who loves photography, she enjoys the world and all it has to offer.
Steve: A great guy... the sort of guy that everyone's mother would want them to marry, and Felicia's family feels he is the one who will finally "set her straight" and make her to the woman they believe she is supposed to be.
Felicia: Very confusing and strange. Used to lead guys on frequently online and at school, but when she eventually found Steve and their friend Mark, she appeared to have settled down.
James: Always in a rush, going through life as fast as he can. Barely sleeping and running on five hours of sleep a night if he's lucky. Not the best driver out there.
Regina: Works way too hard and always keep herself busy, but maintains a positive attitude.
The setting will be relatively modern as most of my novels are.
Characters:
Mark: An excellent photographer who often confuses history with memory and gets himself stuck in his own delusions and sometimes shows poor judgment when it comes to things that most people understand innately.
Connie: A talented artist who loves photography, she enjoys the world and all it has to offer.
Steve: A great guy... the sort of guy that everyone's mother would want them to marry, and Felicia's family feels he is the one who will finally "set her straight" and make her to the woman they believe she is supposed to be.
Felicia: Very confusing and strange. Used to lead guys on frequently online and at school, but when she eventually found Steve and their friend Mark, she appeared to have settled down.
James: Always in a rush, going through life as fast as he can. Barely sleeping and running on five hours of sleep a night if he's lucky. Not the best driver out there.
Regina: Works way too hard and always keep herself busy, but maintains a positive attitude.
The setting will be relatively modern as most of my novels are.
NanoWrimo 2015
November is National Writing Month! Or NanoWrimo as we call it.
And here you can look at my novel as I update its stats. I've won NanoWrimo twice, in 2002 and 2011. In 2012 I got about 7,500 words done on what I thought would become an epic fantasy novel but I couldn't finish it.
Right now I have very few obligations in life and I have a great idea for a novel as well. I will try to update this blog more often with information regarding that novel. :)
Keep reading, this is going to be real and awesome and possibly sauce too.
And here you can look at my novel as I update its stats. I've won NanoWrimo twice, in 2002 and 2011. In 2012 I got about 7,500 words done on what I thought would become an epic fantasy novel but I couldn't finish it.
Right now I have very few obligations in life and I have a great idea for a novel as well. I will try to update this blog more often with information regarding that novel. :)
Keep reading, this is going to be real and awesome and possibly sauce too.
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Some Novel Ideas
No, I have not updated this blog much since starting it in January 2013. As a result, it has barely been viewed. But I am going to post a couple of my novel ideas in here. Perhaps I will do another NanoWrimo, as I've won that contest twice.
1. Photographer gets haunted after taking pictures of people that begin to invade his life.
2. A car crash epidemic where one motorcycle accident sets off a chain of car accidents to people who barely know one another.
I look forward to writing more once again and I know this isn't much of an update, but I will be there and be square.
1. Photographer gets haunted after taking pictures of people that begin to invade his life.
2. A car crash epidemic where one motorcycle accident sets off a chain of car accidents to people who barely know one another.
I look forward to writing more once again and I know this isn't much of an update, but I will be there and be square.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Some writing exercises I made up.
Exercise 1:
Try to summarize yourself (or your characters) in one sentence. This is something I've been doing with myself lately as I've sort of been stuck on progress with Interconnected. Can a character be defined in one sentence? Can anyone?
I would say in some cases, that they can, but not all.
Bad single-sentence description:
"He's the son of a used car salesman."
Just a generic stereotype that has no real meaning on its own. It could go somewhere, but it doesn't mean anything on its own.
And this is one for me as a person and a writer:
"Never stops moving, he always seeks to be improving."
Exercise 2:
GET OUTSIDE MORE. Take some time off from things and walk. Listen to the sounds of the world. I find myself relying on my Ipod far too much. As I have perfect pitch, I've felt like when I listen to music, it's almost as if the world can listen with me. That can be far too intense and gets in the way of my own mind, so just listening to the sounds of the world, and watching ducks by Shoreline has been very helpful for me.
Some questions I have:
1. Do you think animals can evolve as humanity grows intelligent and more peaceful? That is, do animals respond to human nature, to our thoughts?
2. Is global warming potentially a good thing, if new land becomes fertile? If so, are efforts to combat global warming not the best way to help the environment as a whole?
Exercise 3:
Go back in time in your mind and try to see if you can change the world. Time travel of the mind. Find an event in your life or in ancient history and wonder if it would change anything. I believe that if you think hard enough doing that, you can make a positive change in yourself and others.
Go out and write if you feel like it. And if you don't want to write, then do something else.
Try to summarize yourself (or your characters) in one sentence. This is something I've been doing with myself lately as I've sort of been stuck on progress with Interconnected. Can a character be defined in one sentence? Can anyone?
I would say in some cases, that they can, but not all.
Bad single-sentence description:
"He's the son of a used car salesman."
Just a generic stereotype that has no real meaning on its own. It could go somewhere, but it doesn't mean anything on its own.
And this is one for me as a person and a writer:
"Never stops moving, he always seeks to be improving."
Exercise 2:
GET OUTSIDE MORE. Take some time off from things and walk. Listen to the sounds of the world. I find myself relying on my Ipod far too much. As I have perfect pitch, I've felt like when I listen to music, it's almost as if the world can listen with me. That can be far too intense and gets in the way of my own mind, so just listening to the sounds of the world, and watching ducks by Shoreline has been very helpful for me.
Some questions I have:
1. Do you think animals can evolve as humanity grows intelligent and more peaceful? That is, do animals respond to human nature, to our thoughts?
2. Is global warming potentially a good thing, if new land becomes fertile? If so, are efforts to combat global warming not the best way to help the environment as a whole?
Exercise 3:
Go back in time in your mind and try to see if you can change the world. Time travel of the mind. Find an event in your life or in ancient history and wonder if it would change anything. I believe that if you think hard enough doing that, you can make a positive change in yourself and others.
Go out and write if you feel like it. And if you don't want to write, then do something else.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Welcome, reader(s)!
This blog is about me, Jesse Radin, the self-proclaimed and self-published author.
I've never had qualms about putting my name up online, and this blog URL represents that part of me. There's no weird pseudonym or witty pun in my blogspot URL. It's just jesseradin.blogspot.com. Much like my website, JesseRadin.com.
I hope you enjoy my writing I've put up on Amazon. Right now, writing isn't my main source of income. If it was, I wouldn't be too happy with where it was going. But my main goal as an author is to get my name out there more, to get people to know who I am, and when I write the most amazing novel OF ALL TIME, people will buy it.
I haven't written it yet. But I will. Someday.
I've never had qualms about putting my name up online, and this blog URL represents that part of me. There's no weird pseudonym or witty pun in my blogspot URL. It's just jesseradin.blogspot.com. Much like my website, JesseRadin.com.
I hope you enjoy my writing I've put up on Amazon. Right now, writing isn't my main source of income. If it was, I wouldn't be too happy with where it was going. But my main goal as an author is to get my name out there more, to get people to know who I am, and when I write the most amazing novel OF ALL TIME, people will buy it.
I haven't written it yet. But I will. Someday.
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